The present disclosure is related to an electrical contact material. More particularly, the present disclosure is related to a contact material for low force actuators and a method for making the same.
With the recent advances in the miniaturization of electronic devices, there is a huge demand for microswitches that have small geometries, are capable of microsecond switch timing, and have low power consumption. Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches are ideally suited for such applications because of their small geometries, minimal switch mass and momentum, for their low power consumption, and the possibility of fabricating using standard MEMS and semiconductor fabrication techniques. Critical performance criteria for MEMS switches are low contact resistance, microsecond switch operation, voltage standoff, and high reliability. The small mass of a MEMS switch enables rapid switch timing, but sacrifices contact force and hence contact resistance. The low actuation force leads to a large resistance of the order of ohms. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for contact materials and contact structures that significantly reduce the contact resistance while maintaining the contact structural stability that enables long life of millions to billions of operation cycles.